We had know the place (La Clede) for years, even stayed there one Easter holiday, it started raining, we all moved into one room as a river ran down the corridor.) But never having been put off by a bit of a challenge and 'Mission Impossible' we bought it. We saw there were large terraces just waiting to be cleared and cultivated. January 2000 we got our official farming statute. The farm had been abandonned in the 1930's, the house had since served as a family summer retreat, but it rapidly lost all its glory. No repairs were ever done, no trees cut, the jungle invaded the house from all sides. The family stopped coming. It was damp, smelly, rotten beams, heavily leaking roof and it still is!!!. We lived in the house the first winter (while doing up another property to rent out as a summer holiday home). We then started our semi-nomadic life, winters in the 'gite', summers at 'La Clede'. This all involved a lot of moving, we donot travel light! One thing I forgot to mention, we have no vehicular acces, the only way of reaching us is an 'Indiana Jones' type bridge. But................. now after ten years of paperwork we have authorisation to build a passage in the river. Already the tractor and diggers have made their way across and it is changing our lives rapidly.
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